Madrid’s food scene once lived in the shadow of the famous tables of San Sebastián and Barcelona, but no longer. Traditionally, every indicator from press coverage to Michelin stars to chef star power tilted towards the Basque and Catalan food capitals. Madrid has asserted itself, both by developing its own cuisines and local talent to new heights and by attracting the best chefs from around Spain to the city. Today all eyes are on Madrid, firmly established as a global food city on all fronts.
Desde 1911
NOTE: Desde 1911 now has one Michelin star
Madrid is famously and counterintuitively one of the best places in Spain to eat seafood. Very fresh seafood. Blindingly fast transport brings the best product from the Spanish coastal ports to the capital which sits smack in the middle of the country. The seafood stocks enormous urban fish markets and populates the menus of the city’s elite restaurants. If there is one company associated with the success of this coast to capital process, it's the legendary Pescaderías Coruñesas, a family seafood distributor of Galician origin whose specialty is providing Madrid with the absolute best seafood from across Spain. Coruñesas brings in every imaginable kind of fish, shellfish, and otherworldly sea creatures. Of course, once you have the best product, why not open your own restaurant?
Enter Desde 1911, the self-proclaimed “best port in Madrid.” Pescaderías Coruñesas has decades of experience running restaurants in Madrid, but this new project dedicated to the bounty of the sea in an elegantly converted industrial space has become a restaurant whose daily changing menu mirrors the day’s bounty of fish and seafood flown in from the coasts. The Desde 1911 team has full access to the daily catch, and they choose the best pieces from it. The products come first, and the menu is created from scratch daily around those products, a fact which makes the creative menus served at Desde 1911 all the more impressive.
Desde 1911 is tasting menu restaurant. You can vary the number of first courses if you like, though why you would opt for fewer than all of them is unclear. There are no misses here. From clams and shrimp to lobster and sea urchin, each single plate could be a star in another show. The star here, however, is a delicately cooked whole fish. It could be turbot, sea bream, or another of Spain’s impressive specimens. The fish is usually baked and accompanied by a sauce made at the table in a custom-built press for maximum flavor. Not only is this likely the best fish you can eat in Madrid on any given day, it surpasses what many coastal restaurants can muster!
The experience can go on. You may want world-class caviar, or you might go straight for the cheese cart with its wide-ranging selection of greats cured by Desde 1911 themselves. The desserts come on a cart as well, the final (solid) stage of a meal that feels like a perfectly calibrated machine to maximize joy on the palate.
The wine is not neglected. Desde 1911’s impressive wine cellar offers plenty of bottles from small producers and unknown regions that can accompany the most exciting seafood dishes, but there’s also something for the more classically minded: a collection of extensive verticals of some of Spain’s finest wines: Vega Sicila, Viña Tondonia, Marqués de Murrieta and more. You’ll find some of Spain’s greatest wines dating back, in some cases, more than a century. It’s fitting that this fundamentally hedonistic place would have such wines. It is, after all, a place to have a meal that the Spanish would dub un homenaje.
Deessa
The refurbished and rebranded Mandarin Oriental Ritz Hotel is a luxurious complex, full of beautiful furnishings and professional staff. This centenarian hotel has been an icon in Madrid since its opening, but its recent rebirth reestablishes it as one of Spain’s great luxury hotels.
To take its dining options to the next level, the Ritz brought in the best: Valencian superstar chef Quique Dacosta. Dacosta’s eponymous restaurant in Denia, on the Valencian coast, has earned and held three Michelin stars for years and helped create a new Valencian cuisine with its modern, technical dishes based on local ingredients. Now, Dacosta’s first major foray outside of the Levante is to take charge of the varied dining options of the Ritz. The centerpiece of these is Deessa. With two Michelin stars in two years, this fine dining restaurant has exploded onto a Madrid restaurant scene with no shortage of exciting openings.
Deessa’s dining room occupies a lavish space inside the Ritz, with chandeliers and soft carpets, washed in natural light from the hotel’s garden. The luxury is palpable. The dining here is tasting menu only, with two options. One menu brings together some of the most iconic dishes from Dacosta’s Denia restaurant from its years of success, while the other consists of a completely novel menu developed for Deessa. Either menu delivers the signature Quique Dacosta experience, with surprising and beautiful presentations, pure product flavors, and technically complex preparations. Deessa has really brought the spirit of a three star restaurant to Madrid, and it’s no secret that Dacosta and his team are after that third star. It may be new, but this restaurant is already firmly established at the top of Madrid’s dining scene.
There is also a bit of wine here. Hundreds of wines from Spain and abroad are available by the glass, alongside the option of a carefully chosen wine pairing with your menu. Extremely professional staff have aided the stratospheric rise of Deessa; from beginning to end a meal here is a well-oiled machine. With experienced talents brought in from Denia and some of Madrid’s most capable natives, Deessa is the pride of the hotel, with a life and a reputation of its own.
Coque
It’s rare to have a family affair like Coque at the top of the fine dining world. The three Sandoval brothers are in charge of the kitchen, cellar and service at this two Michelin star restaurant in the Madrid’s ritzy Chamberí district.
The brothers began the restaurant outside of the city at their family’s traditional restaurant before beginning their ascent there and moving to Madrid, now occupying eleven thousand square feet spread across the restaurant’s multiple areas. Coque remains dedicated to taking diners on a journey, both physically and sensorially. Your meal moves through the lounge, the bar, the kitchen, and the wine cellar and finally the dining room. A single tasting menu brings together the best products from around Spain to create dishes that pay homage to the humble origins of the Sandovals and Spanish cuisine more widely. You’ll find some of the most luxurious products available on Coque’s menu, from caviar to their most famous dish, roast suckling pig. The liquid side of the meal is essential here, with pairings and bottles selected from one of Spain’s best wine cellars, where over three thousand different wines sit in a circular wine temple. Dining at Coque is a full gastronomic experience that is not easily forgotten.
Corral de la Morería Dinner & Flamenco Show
Corral de la Morería has been hosting world-class flamenco performances for many years, and it now houses a Michelin star restaurant. Step inside the tiny restaurant hidden near the venue’s entrance and you’ll find just four tables, making it one of the hardest reservations to get in Madrid. The tasting menu dinners served here are creative and surprising, but it’s not just the food that’s exceptional. Corral de la Morería has one of the largest selections of sherry wines in the world, including bottles dating back decades. The diverse wine cellar has more than a thousand different wines available. You can opt for one of the wine pairings with dinner or order wines à la carte.
After dinner, it’s time to head into the main room for one of the best flamenco shows in the city, and indeed in all of Spain. For decades, Corral de la Morería has attracted the biggest stars in the flamenco world to its stage and the most discerning enthusiasts to enjoy the shows. The expert guitarists, singers, dancers, and other flamenco artists who perform make a night here an essential experience in the capital.
Estimar Madrid
When Ferrán Adriá’s legendary creative cuisine restaurant El Bulli closed, its alumni spread across the Spanish restaurant world, becoming a new generation of star chefs. Sevillian Rafa Zafra was one of them, making a name for himself with Estimar, a modern seafood icon in Barcelona. Now, Estimar Madrid brings Zafra’s creativity and respect for the bounty of the sea to the Spanish capital. It’s a small, welcoming space, with brick details and wooden tables. Settle into one of the comfortable chairs and you’ll be ready to embark on a journey into the best of Spain’s seafood, with a level of refinement that harkens back to El Bulli and special attention to grilled fish and shellfish. Madrid has gained another top level restaurant to add to its constellation.
The menu at Estimar Madrid is short, three pages of the best of the sea. There's no tasting menu here, although some of the dishes could certainly be in one. You might start with oysters, clams, shrimp, goose barnacles, or other sea delicacies. There are some creative dishes here, like the cigalita carpaccio, while others offer pure flavor and simple presentation. Move on to shellfish with classic Spanish sauces or some world-class fried fish, a nod to Zafra’s Andalusian heritage. The main event, however, is the grilled fish and seafood. Grilling whole fish like turbot and sea bass is highly revered in Spain, especially on the Basque coast, but Zafra also grills prawns, small lobsters, and even sea cucumbers!
The wine cellar at Estimar is world-class by any standards. The strongest areas are, unsurprisingly, white and sparkling wines, the natural pairings for sea creatures. Cava, Champagne, Galician and Catalan whites, and Andalusian Sherry are some of the stars of the show, including rare releases and exclusive bottlings. For the red wine lover, you’ll find a deep cellar with the greatest wines of Spain, France and beyond, from Comando G to Álvaro Palacios to the great houses of Bordeaux and Burgundy. There's an extensive selection of wines by the glass for the indecisive and curious, so no need to commit to a bottle to enjoy the show.
Osa
NOTE: Osa now has one Michelin star
Osa, Madrid’s most exciting new restaurant opening, is just a short drive from the city center, but it feels a world away from the rush of the city. Down a residential street lined with one and two-story houses in the Colonia de Manzanares, a nondescript gate in front of what was, until recently, another house in this quiet riverfront area. Passing through the gate you’re in a lush patio with an outdoor smoker, glass doors leading into the dining room and a spiral staircase to the upstairs curing area, wine cellar, and private space for diners to open some wine and relax before or after their meal. Osa is an oasis, like a private home with understated design and an upbeat yet relaxed feel, including the dining room with views of the open kitchen.
Two world-class young talents, veterans of the Spanish food scene, are the founders of Osa: chefs Sara Peral and Jorge Muñoz. With experience at restaurants like Mugaritz and Diverxo, they spent two years planning and preparing Osa to be their personal space for culinary expression and dining excellence. Clearly their vision hit a nerve, because Osa’s opening has lit up Madrid. In a global city with its share of cookie-cutter menus and pretentious spots, a restaurant that’s as honest as Osa is radical. Serious, passionate cuisine with the skill to match, nothing more, nothing less.
What does Osa’s vision look like? There’s one tasting menu here, though one gets the impression Peral and Muñoz would do away with it if not for practicality. The menu selections vary with the seasons, but the Osa team has described their cuisine as “Spanish product, French technique and Japanese sensibility.” Each dish is a study in an ingredient; the techniques all seem to be in service of helping the product shine, whether it’s fish, a pepper or a wild game bird. Some of these techniques are beyond the usual capabilities of a restaurant, especially the curing, aging and smoking, all of which is done in house. The result is mesmerizing, allowing ingredients to become more than themselves, revealing a character hidden deep inside them. At Osa the presentations are impeccable and simple. The idea is that you focus on what you taste and feel when you eat each pared down dish. The chefs are trying to bring out the essence of each product
The other aspects of dining at Osa are focused on liberating diners rather than dictating to them. Thus Osa’s different spaces exist for guests to enjoy, not to be marched through. The kitchen is visible and easily accessible. The service is exactly what you want, fast and helpful and precise but with confident relaxation. The freedom extends to the wine list. Osa has a tasting menu but no wine pairing, or anything pairing. Once you look at the wine list you may see why: it’s a tome featuring a fascinating selection of wines from around the world. The Spanish sections are stunning, full of wines from tiny growers, classic bottlings, and special vintages of some of the country’s greatest wines. Artadi, López de Heredia, Vega Sicilia, and Álvaro Palacios share space with the artisans like Dominio del Águila, Nin-Ortiz, and Casa Castillo. If you want to stick to Spain, you’ll have plenty to work with no matter how many wines you want. Dig deeper and you’ll find world-class non-Spanish selections, with a special focus on France and the Italian Piedmont. You could enjoy rare grower and old vintage Champagnes, Grand Cru Burgundy, Bordeaux verticals, Rhone and Loire selections, cult Barolos and Barbarescos, and even iconic wines from the New World. Madrid wine broker Fernando Cuenllas, wine partner of the restaurant, helped source the cellar, including contributing many bottles from his personal collection acquired at auction. From Sherry and vintage Champagne to Sake and Cognac, the drinks list is a marvel, and the staff is ready to help you find the perfect bottle no matter your taste.
Diverxo
David Muñoz is a man who needs no introduction in Spain. Madrid’s tattooed, mohawk-sporting kitchen rock star chef is instantly recognizable and the wild one among Spain’s top chefs. He even styles himself Dabiz Muñoz, since every rock star needs a good stage name. But beyond the chaotic image, Muñoz is at the moment the man leading Spain’s food world with unbridled creativity and dedication. He’s been voted the world’s best chef for two years running by Best Chef Awards, an accolade based mainly on his creations at his flagship restaurant Diverxo, the one that finally gave Madrid a three Michelin star restaurant after many years of absence. It’s here that Muñoz's creativity, some might say madness, is unleashed to the world.
The dining room at Diverxo is fantastical bordering on psychedelic. Sit down in one of the chairs, fittingly reminiscent of spaceship seats, and prepare for liftoff. There are no choices here and no substitutions, just one never ending tasting menu with surprise after surprise and delight after delight. Muñoz cut his teeth in Asian restaurants in London, and his cooking has a global vein running through it despite being grounded in Spanish ingredients. How do you describe things that have never been done before? The presentations are surprising, visual art on a plate. The concepts, revolutionary. You might have the same humble fish caught at different ages; you might have dumplings (a particular favorite of Muñoz’s) with succulent fillings unlike anything you've tasted. Asian, Latin American and Spanish flavors. There's a reason Diverxo continues to rank as one of the best restaurants in the world: it is a true original.
Of course, it is also an extremely good restaurant. Every dish perfectly plates, every plate an artwork, and each member of the team playing their role with grace. The wine list and wine pairing options are above and beyond what is common even at a restaurant of this level. The cellar is full of old and extremely rare wines from Spain and the world’s great wineries. The wine pairings make use of these in surprising and effective ways, a way to complete the experience. From German Riesling and Champagne to Sherry and Rioja, it’s a carefully selected way to try unique wines with unique dishes. Unrepeatable pairings.
Clos Madrid
Sommelier Marcos Granda is an unlikely man to swim in a sea of Michelin stars, but this Asturian visionary has brought Spanish cuisine to new and unexpected places with his focus on service and wine alongside excellent cuisine. He rose to fame with two Michelin star Skina in Marbella, but today Clos Madrid is making waves of its own. Elegant, seasonal dishes highlight the flavors of excellent Spanish products with a special focus on the flavors of central Spain. You can enjoy Clos’s dishes in a full tasting menu, or opt for a shorter three-course selection. Regardless, you’ll be able to enjoy your meal in a beautiful dining room. As a restaurant built around Granda’s love of great wine, the wine selection is a draw, whether you opt for a pairing or some great suggestions from the cellar. Clos Madrid offers fine dining as a seamless, relaxed experience that makes you want to come back for more.
DSTAgE
Basque chef Diego Guerrero’s playful, surprising restaurant in the central Chueca district of Madrid is an exploration of his culinary creativity. Guerrero rose to prominence in the capital at the helm of Club Allard, a private club turned fine dining restaurant, where he achieved two Michelin stars. At DSTAgE he’s got his stars back, but cooking exactly what occurs to him, without limits. The tasting menus start with inventive bites at the bar before transitioning to the dining room. Unusual flavors, impeccable technique, beautiful presentation, and all of it run through with strong personality and the vision of a chef who clearly enjoys his craft. This is a fine dining experience in Madrid that leaves trends and fashions behind to focus on the simple joy of fine dining at its best.
Toledo
Ivan Cerdeño
Young chef Ivan Cerdeño has put the historic city of Toledo, within shooting distance of Madrid, on the culinary map. Cerdeño left his hometown in Toledo province behind to work in the world's best kitchens, including three Michelin star El Celler de Can Roca. But the pull of heritage pulled him back. His mother ran a bar in his hometown for decades, and from her he inherited an appreciation for the traditional recipes and ingredients of Toledo. With his return to Toledo, he's turned the oldest of the city’s cigarrales, historic villas that overlook the city, into the creative Michelin starred restaurant that bears his name. It’s dedicated to distilling the flavors of the surrounding countryside and the region’s traditional recipes into a modern menu.
The location in an 11th-century cigarral palace surrounded by carefully manicured gardens is no coincidence. Cerdeño is passionate about the local and the historic. In the dining room, with its stunning views of old Toledo, you will be treated to a tasting menu of dishes that make the most of the local bounty and the chef’s incredible skill. The preparations and presentations are modern and surprising, but with a sense of place. From local produce and wild game, pine nuts and mushrooms, the legendary mar y montaña dishes and revitalized and refreshed humble centenarian recipes, each dish evokes Toledan or Spanish terroir. No one could have imagined not long ago that the once humble ingredients of the area would be thus elevated.
A deep wine cellar managed by Cerdeño’s wife provides accompaniment for the menu. You’ll find world-famous names alongside artisan wines from nearby producers, and an intriguing selection of wines from other parts of Spain, like rare Sherries from Jerez and wines made from little known indigenous grapes. Let the team guide you with a wine pairing or choose some special bottles that intrigue you, and enjoy the pleasure of pairing good wine with exciting dishes.